this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2023
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The one real point that I thought Linus had here was that Steve didn't talk to him first. That part is getting a lot of ridicule, because it sounds petulant, but it's valid--it is accepted journalistic practice to give the subject of a story a chance to comment before publishing.
Since we can now see what that comment likely would have been, it doesn't seem to change the conclusion much. From experience I can guess at Steve's likely response--he would have tentatively given LMG credit for compensating Billet for the loss, pending verification and comment from Billet, and ripped all the rest of Linus's excuses a new one. But that still doesn't change the fact that Steve didn't quite live up to the journalistic standards that he touts on his channel.
That failure gives things a bit more of a "drama" flavor (It's hard not to suspect that this is primarily a response motivated by that clip of Linus's lab tech attacking GN's and HUB's testing methods). But of course it doesn't absolve LMG and its vaunted lab of milking the Youtube algorithm first and being a source of real information a distant second--which was argued pretty convincingly by GN and which a lot of us started to notice long before this video came out.
I think the way LTT handled the backpack warranty debacle shows that by contacting LTT, you won't get anything substantial in response. Linus will just keep being stubborn and you'll get nothing in response. Even the way that Linus responded in his "response", it's still a nothingburger response.
He's still doubling down on the way that he reviewed Billet Labs cooler and doesn't even acknowledge the biggest criticism that GN levied towards LTT, spending more time in making sure that the content that they're producing is accurate. Having a pinned comment and edited fixes shows that LTT doesn't really care about quality and instead pushing to keep more producing content.
I saw a post somewhere showing that at least 300 people unsubscribed from Floatplane, so that means at least 1500 USD/month (can be more if there's people who subscribe for 4k content) of revenue are lost. Just from him not wanting to spend 500 USD of his employee time to make sure that he reviewed the products properly.
Linus has completely lost the plot here. Although it's not unexpected since the way he handled the backpack warranty situation.
Please explain why it aught to be/is standard practice to try and get a reponse before publishing.
It's a customary practice, and I think it's a good one because it makes the story less one-sided and can diminish the appearance of it being a hit piece if it's negative. Bottom line, it's natural to want to know what the person the story is about thinks of it and what their perspective is. Obviously not all journalists seek a comment from every subject, but if they do, they often mention that they asked for a comment even if they weren't able to get one, because people want to know that they at least tried.
What could LMG have said which would change the reporting of the inaccuracies of their content? Getting a response before hand may be able to get some more information but giving corporations time to react also gives them time to act in bad faith (e.g. cover up or attempt to blackmail, etc).
Wanting to know what the person in the story things doesn't appear to me to support sharing your criticisms before posting. Something being a custom doesn't justify it being a custom (if it really is one).
I mean, I'm not a journalist, I've just been reading them for decades. It's a thing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/policies-and-standards/
Just as an example that came up in a quick web search--the Washington Post is a major US newspaper and this is its stated policy. Seeking comment from story subjects is an important practice in journalism, and if you consider yourself a journalist and don't do it in a given case, you should probably have a good reason. This is why Steve felt the need to explain himself on that point.
I assumed some do it, perhaps most do and that makes it a standard.
Taking their comment into account has the potential to get more information which would prevent you reporting misinformation. I'd love to know how often their comment is useful vs how often corporations take advantage.